[unreadable] Although associations between psychosocial processes and health outcomes have now been carefully documented for several diseases, the mechanisms by which such psychosocial processes specifically influence peripheral biology and modulate illness are unknown. This proposal seeks to place the brain squarely back into the equation so that we can mechanistically relate psychological processes as they are instantiated in the brain, which then signals the periphery to influence health and disease. Scientific progress in cognitive and affective neuroscience over the past decade has led to major advances in our understanding of circuitry underlining cognition and affect. What is less well known is how this circuitry signals the periphery to modulate peripheral biological events that are central to certain illnesses. The overall objective of this grant application is the development of an integrative approach to addressing these questions. We have selected asthma as a disease example in which to study these processes, and the proposed interdisciplinary project will focus initially on molecular targets and cascades in relation to neuroscience, inflammation, and respiratory biology. This proposal extends the work of an existing network that has collaborated in several interdisciplinary studies. [unreadable] [unreadable] The aims of this application are to support the continued development of the existing organizational structure. This will be accomplished by support of frequent meetings of the core group, joined on occasion by other experts from neuroscience, pulmonary physiology, and immunophysiology. The group will organize workshops and symposia to review current findings that point the way to new studies linking mind, brain and body interactions. Support is also requested for linking the training grants of the co-investigators to provide opportunities for trainees to move between laboratories. Future efforts will extend the collaborations linking brain imaging, expectancy and bronchial function in asthma, emphasizing the physiological mechanisms linking brain activity to the periphery. This will include studies of the modulation of bronchoconstriction, central-peripheral communication in inflammation in asthma and in wound healing, and how placebos may modify autonomic and immune markers. We believe this P20 can help to influence a new generation of biomedical scientists who conceptualize the brain and body as working together and who have the tools to examine this interaction. [unreadable] [unreadable]